Church bombing, desegregation to be center's topics

April 10, 2007|Tribune Staff Report

SOUTH BEND -- A film about a 1963 church bombing and a discussion about the desegregation of the South Bend Community School Corp. are upcoming events at the Northern Indiana Center for History, 808 W. Washington St. Both events, which are part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Presentation Series, are tied into the center's current exhibit, "Media Coverage of Civil Rights." A limited number of free admissions will be provided for the events, but advance registration is required. The film "Four Little Girls" will be shown at 2 p.m. Sunday. The film chronicles the 1963 racially motivated bombing of a Baptist church in Birmingham, Ala., which killed four young black girls. At 7 p.m. April 26, the center will host a panel discussion titled: "The 1960s Appeal to Integrate South Bend Schools: Has the Plan Worked?" The panel will include: Virginia Calvin, chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College-North Central, who from 1993 to 2000 was superintendent of the South Bend Community School Corp.; Edward Meyers, who worked for the South Bend schools for 40 years and was the first black principal in the school system; George "Jack" Woolridge, who worked as a teacher and later the first black human resources director for the South Bend schools; and Roger Birdsell, a former Tribune reporter who covered public education during the civil rights movement era. Les Lamon, a retired Indiana University South Bend history professor and former director of IUSB's Civil Rights Heritage Center, will serve as moderator. The cost to attend each event is museum admission, which is $8 for adults, $6.50 for seniors 60 years and older, $5 for youths 6 to 17 or in college, and free for members. To request free admission, call the museum in advance at (574) 235-9664. More than 40 South Bend Tribune stories and images are on view in the exhibit "Media Coverage of Civil Rights," which explores civil rights in South Bend during the 1960s as seen through Tribune coverage of that era. Other films to be shown at the center as part of the series include "The Murder of Emmett Till," May 13; "Zoot Suit Riots," Sept. 9; and "The Rosa Parks Story," Oct. 14.